Myths and Marvels of Astronomy
idolatry; and we have thus some means of inferring who they were and
whence they came. We know that one particular branch of one particular
race in the East was characterised by a most marked hatred of idolatry
in all its forms. Terah and his family, or, probably, a sect or division
of the Chaldaean people, went forth from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into
the land of Canaan--and the reason why they went forth we learn from a
book of considerable historical interest (the book of Judith) to have
been because 'they would not worship the gods of their fathers who were
in the land of the Chaldaeans.' The Bible record shows that members of
this branch of the Chaldaean people visited Egypt from time to time. They
were shepherds, too, which accords well with the account of Herodotus
above quoted. We can well understand that persons of this family would
have resisted all endeavours to secure their acquiescence in any scheme
associated with idolatrous rites. Neither promises nor threats would
have had much influence on them. It was a distinguished member of the
family, the patriarch Abraham, who said: 'I have lift up mine hand unto
the Lord, the most high God, the possessor of heaven and earth, that I
will not take from a thread even to a shoe-latchet, and that I will not
take anything that is thine, lest thou shouldest say, I have made Abram
rich.' Vain would all the promises and all the threats of Cheops have
been to men of this spirit. Such men might help him in his plans,
suggested, as the history shows, by teachings of their own, but it must
be on their own conditions, and those conditions would most certainly
include the utter rejection of idolatrous worship by the king in whose
behalf they worked, as well as by all who shared in their labours. It
seems probable that they convinced both Cheops and Chephren, that unless
these kings gave up idolatry, the purpose, whatever it was, which the
pyramid was erected to promote, would not be fulfilled. The mere fact
that the Great Pyramid was built either directly at the suggestion of
these visitors, or because they had persuaded Cheops of the truth of
some important doctrine, shows that they must have gained great
influence over his mind. Rather we may say that he must have been so
convinced of their knowledge and power as to have accepted with
unquestioning confidence all that they told him respecting the
particular subject over which they seemed to possess so perfect a
mastery.
But having formed the opinion, on grounds sufficiently assured, that the
strangers who visited Egypt and superintended the building of the Great
Pyramid were kinsmen of the patriarch Abraham, it is not very difficult
to decide what was the subject respecting which they had such exact
information. They or their parents had come from the land of the
Chaldaeans, and they were doubtless learned in all the wisdom of their
Chaldaean kinsmen. They were masters, in fact, of the astronomy of their
day, a science for which the Chaldaeans had shown from the earliest ages
the most remarkable aptitude. What the actual extent of their
astronomical knowledge may have been it would be difficult to say. But
it is certain, from the exact knowledge which later Chaldaeans possessed
respecting long astronomical cycles, that astronomical observations must
have been carried on continuously by that people for many hundreds of
years. It is highly probable that the astronomical knowledge of the
Chaldaeans in the days of Terah and Abraham was much more accurate than
that possessed by the Greeks even after the time of Hipparchus.[24] We
see indeed, in the accurate astronomical adjustment of the Great
Pyramid, that the architects must have been skilful astronomers and
mathematicians; and I may note here, in passing, how strongly this
circumstance confirms the opinion that the visitors were kinsmen of
Terah and Abraham. All we know from Herodotus and Manetho, all the
evidence from the circumstances connected with the religion of the
pyramid-kings, and the astronomical evidence given by the pyramids
themselves, tends to assure us that members of that particular branch of
the Chaldaean family which went out from Ur of the Chaldees because they
would not worship the gods of the Chaldaeans, extended their wanderings
to Egypt, and eventually superintended the erection of the Great Pyramid
so far as astronomical and mathematical relations were concerned.
But not only have we already decided that the pyramids were not intended
solely or chiefly to sub serve the purpose of astronomical
observatories, but it is certain that Cheops would not have been
personally much interested in any astronomical information which these
visitors might be able to communicate. Unless he saw clearly that
something was to be gained from the lore of his visitors, he would not
have undertaken to erect any astronomical buildings at their suggestion,
even if he had cared enough for their knowledge to pay any attention to
them whatever. Most probably the reply Cheops would have made to any
communications respecting mere astronomy, would have run much in the
style of the reply made by the Turkish Cadi, Imaum Ali Zade to a friend
of Layard's who had apparently bored him about double stars and comets:
'Oh my soul! oh my lamb!' said Ali Zade, 'seek not after the things
which concern thee not. Thou camest unto us, and we welcomed thee: go in
peace. Of a truth thou hast spoken many words; and there is no harm
done, for the speaker is one and the listener is another. After the
fashion of thy people thou hast wandered from one place to another until
thou art happy and content in none. Listen, oh my son! There is no
wisdom equal unto the belief in God! He created the world, and shall we
liken ourselves unto Him in seeking to penetrate into the mysteries of
His creation? Shall we say, Behold this star spinneth round that star,
and this other star with a tail goeth and cometh in so many years! Let
it go! He from whose hand it came will guide and direct it. But thou
wilt say unto me, Stand aside, oh man, for I am more learned than thou
art, and have seen more things. If thou thinkest that thou art in this
respect better than I am, thou art welcome. I praise God that I seek not
that which I require not. Thou art learned in the things I care not for;
and as for that which thou hast seen, I defile it. Will much knowledge
create thee a double belly, or wilt thou seek paradise with thine eyes?'
Such, omitting the references to the Creator, would probably have been
the reply of Cheops to his visitors, had they only had astronomical
facts to present him with. Or, in the plenitude of his kingly power, he
might have more decisively rejected their teaching by removing their
heads.
But the shepherd-astronomers had knowledge more attractive to offer than
a mere series of astronomical discoveries. Their ancestors had
Watched from the centres of their sleeping flocks
Those radiant Mercuries, that seemed to move
Carrying through aether in perpetual round
Decrees and resolutions of the gods;
and though the visitors of King Cheops had themselves rejected the
Sabaistic polytheism of their kinsmen, they had not rejected the
doctrine that the stars in their courses affect the fortunes of men. We
know that among the Jews, probably the direct descendants of the
shepherd-chiefs who visited Cheops, and certainly close kinsmen of
theirs, and akin to them also in their monotheism, the belief in
astrology was never regarded as a superstition. In fact, we can trace
very clearly in the books relating to this people that they believed
confidently in the influences of the heavenly bodies. Doubtless the
visitors of King Cheops shared the belief of their Chaldaean kinsmen that
astrology is a true science, 'founded' indeed (as Bacon expresses their
views) 'not in reason and physical contemplations, but in the direct
experience and observation of past ages.' Josephus records the Jewish
tradition (though not as a tradition but as a fact) that 'our first
father, Adam, was instructed in astrology by divine inspiration,' and
that Seth so excelled in the science, that, 'foreseeing the Flood and
the destruction of the world thereby, he engraved the fundamental
principles of his art (astrology) in hieroglyphical emblems, for the
benefit of after ages, on two pillars of brick and stone.' He says
farther on that the Patriarch Abraham, 'having learned the art in
Chaldaea, when he journeyed into Egypt taught the Egyptians the sciences
of arithmetic and astrology.' Indeed, the stranger called Philitis by
Herodotus may, for aught that appears, have been Abraham himself; for it
is generally agreed that the word Philitis indicated the race and
country of the visitors, regarded by the Egyptians as of Philistine
descent and arriving from Palestine. However, I am in no way concerned
to show that the shepherd-astronomers who induced Cheops to build the
Great Pyramid were even contemporaries of Abraham and Melchizedek. What
seems sufficiently obvious is all that I care to maintain, namely, that
these shepherd-astronomers were of Chaldaean birth and training, and
therefore astrologers, though, unlike their Chaldaean kinsmen, they
rejected Sabaism or star-worship, and taught the belief in one only
Deity.
Now, if these visitors were astrologers, who persuaded Cheops, and were
honestly convinced themselves, that they could predict the events of any
man's life by the Chaldaean method of casting nativities, we can readily
understand many circumstances connected with the pyramids which have
hitherto seemed inexplicable. The pyramid built by a king would no
longer be regarded as having reference to his death and burial, but to
his birth and life, though after his death it might receive his body.
Each king would require to have his own nativity-pyramid, built with due
symbolical reference to the special celestial influences affecting his
fortunes. Every portion of the work would have to be carried out under
special conditions, determined according to the mysterious influences
ascribed to the different planets and their varying positions--
now high, now low, then hid.
Progressive, retrograde, or standing still.
If the work had been intended only to afford the means of predicting the
king's future, the labour would have been regarded by the monarch as
well bestowed. But astrology involved much more than the mere prediction
of future events. Astrologers claimed the power of ruling the
planets--that is, of course, not of ruling the motions of those bodies,
but of providing against evil influences or strengthening good
influences which they supposed the celestial orbs to exert in particular
aspects. Thus we can understand that while the mere basement layers of
the pyramid would have served for the process of casting the royal
nativity, with due mystic observances, the further progress of building
the pyramid would supply the necessary means and indications for ruling
the planets most potent in their influence upon the royal career.
Remembering the mysterious influence which astrologers ascribed to
special numbers, figures, positions, and so forth, the care with which
the Great Pyramid was so proportioned as to indicate particular
astronomical and mathematical relations is at once explained. The four
sides of the square base were carefully placed with reference to the
cardinal points, precisely like the four sides of the ordinary square
scheme of nativity.[25] The eastern side faced the Ascendant, the
southern faced the Mid-heaven, the western faced the Descendant, and the
northern faced the Imum Coeli. Again, we can understand that the
architects would have made a circuit of the base correspond in length
with the number of days in the year--a relation which, according to